Is the USA’s Hands-Off Policy Toward Terrorism Inevitable?

2015 is already turning out to be the most violent for global terrorism since 9/11 and with last week’s attacks in Paris and Mali, the American public seems to be growing ever more anxious about our Government’s hands-off policy toward dealing with terrorism. So far the President has gotten a pass for his reluctance (if not defiance) to take any meaningful action to effectively stem the tide of terrorism from ISIS, Al Qaeda and other groups. Instead, most of the blame for the burgeoning problem is still being laid at George W Bush’s feet, for getting the USA involved in a long costly war in Iraq more than a decade ago. The President has even invoked the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and intimated that he’s content to wait for the moral arc of the universe to bend toward justice, thereby letting the tide of terrorism resolve itself over time.

Commentators will debate how much blame Obama’s hands-off policy and Bush’s hands-on policy should bear for the global terrorism mess we find ourselves in today. The point of this commentary is to question whether things would have turned out meaningfully different if we had instead elected other leaders from the pool of presidential candidates since the events of 9/11.

We can all agree that 9/11 would have likely occurred with Al Gore as President, and academics and pundits can speculate about what his response would have been to that national tragedy, but we will obviously never know for sure how his leadership would have evolved. Bush went to war because of his belief (erroneously in hindsight, along with many members of Congress) that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Would Gore have known better?

However, we do know that Gore served two terms as Vice President in the Clinton Administration which history has shown was less than pro-active in dealing with the growing problem of global terrorism even at that time. Let’s not forget the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center was the do-over for a botched attempt back in 1993 under Clinton’s watch. Obviously, Gore would not have necessarily followed Clinton’s soft approach to terrorism, but there is little to suggest that the flaky Gore would have been much more hawkish on terrorism, especially after he sold his TV station to Al-Jazeera, an organization many critics claim is sympathetic to the terrorist cause.

Furthermore, do the achievements of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, former and current Secretary of State, respectively, suggest either would have been more effective in dealing with global terrorism than our actual leaders have been? Remember, either one could have been elected President during the last decade. As it turns out, by most accounts, Clinton’s tenure as Secretary did nothing to strengthen our cause against terrorism, and although John Kerry’s tenure as Secretary is admittedly a work in progress, how can he possibly redeem himself after negotiating that horrific Iran deal, a deal that has probably done more to help the cause of the terrorists than any other single act in history.

Judging from his distinguished military career and long track record in the Senate, 2008 candidate for president, John McCain, was uniquely prepared among presidential contenders in this new century for the role of Commander-in-Chief and could have been far more effective in combating terrorism. It’s been decades since America has elected a leader with strong military experience and that trend is likely to continue with the recent suspension of Democrat Jim Webb’s campaign and Republican Lindsey Graham’s campaign barely registering among polled voters.

It should be apparent to even casual observers that President Obama has no intention of taking any meaningful action in dealing with terrorism, here or abroad, now or for the remainder of his term in office. Obama apparently believes according to the “arc of history” idea that it will all work out in our favor in the long run, but someone should remind him that another great hero of the liberal cause, John Maynard Keynes, acknowledged that in the long run, we’re all dead!